Shaped article



B. C. GIBBS SHAPED ARTICLE Jul 20, 1937.

2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 1, 1935 INVENTOR B clford C. Gibbs ATTORNEYS JulyZO, 1931. I B, c, GIBBS 2,087,319

SHAPED ARTICLE Filed May 1, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 F ,ol 0 o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o 0 E21 It?! :01 o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o "I j l-J:

|7 22, 10: 0 o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o 0" 1: f A 4 5 F%" lo: 0 o o o o o o o o o o o o o o c( A im 0 o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o 0 q :o: o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o r INVENTOR l6 4 Br fqrd C. Gibb;

ATTORNEYS Patented July 20, 1937 UNITED STATES SHAPED ARTICLE Bradford C. Gibbs, Cumberland, Md., assignor to Celanese Corporation of America, a corporation of Delaware Application May 1, 1935, Serial No. 19,165

8 Claims.

This invention relates to a method and device for the treatment of women's hosie y, loves and similar articles that are usually given finishing treatments, while on forms, in baths such as boiling 01f baths, delustering baths, dye baths,.fin-

ishing baths, etc.

An object of the invention is a method and device for the economic and expeditious processing, as by finishing treatments that require heated, cooled or chemical baths, of shaped articles, for instance, womens hosiery. Other objects of the invention will appear from the following detailed description and drawings.

In the drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the same or similar elements in the various views:

Fig. 1 is an end view of a general plan layout or arrangement of tanks, hoisting mechanisms, racks and work tables.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the arrangement shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a view of a vertical section of a rack for the treatment of women's hosiery.

Fig. 4 is a detailed view of the upper front corner of the rack shown in Fig. 3, parts being in section.

Fig. 5 is a detailed view of one arm of the rack taken on line 55 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 6 is an enlarged view of a segment of an. arm and corresponds to the plan view shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 7 is a front view of the rack, a segment of which is shown in Fig. 3.

In prior methods of treating shaped textile articles, such as womens hosiery, etc. in boiling ofl baths, dye baths and the like, a great amount of space was required and careful regulation of temperature and chemicals was necessary. In the prior methods there were employed long shallow 40 tanks having forms mounted along the edge thereof adapted to be rotated into a horizontal, or treating, position within the tank and upto a vertical position out of the tanks for loading and unloading. Due to the shallowness of the 45 tanks and the great surface area per volume of liquid contained, it was very diificult to regulate temperatures. Due to the long lengths of the tanks employed, it was also very difficult to regulate the even distribution of chemicals such that 50 articles located at various places in the tank would receive the same degree of chemical treatment. When employing heated baths it was necessary for the operators who loaded and unloaded the forms to work almost over the steam tanks 55 and in the vapors emitted from the tanks. By

employing this invention, however, these uirficulties are substantially lessened and the operators may perform their work at a distance from the tank, thus adding to their comfort.

Many articles, for instance, hosiery of silk or 5 organic derivatives of cellulose may be reduced to second-grade articles by treatments in baths of improper temperatures or chemical concentrations. By employing a device constructed in accordance with this invention, deep rectangular 10 box-like tanks having a large body ofliquid confined in the smallest practical space may be employed. For this reason rapid changes in temperature are not probable and the operators attention may be employed with other duties than 15 mere regulation of temperatures. The chances of an improper treating temperature are greatly reduced by employing the deep tanks. There is also an economy in floor space when employing heated or cooled baths and economy in the heat- 20 ing or cooling medium employed as there is no large surface, per article treated, exposed to the air. A reduction of about 75 per cent may be made in the floor space required, per article treated, from that formerly employed. 25

A substantial advantageof employing this invention is that the persons who load and unload the forms may work in comfortable conditions and they are not required to be right at the treating tanks, which was necessary in the former 30 methods. By employing this invention it becomes possible to unload the forms at a distance from the tank and the persons are thus removed from the terrific heat and vapors coming from the surface of the liquid. Further, currents of air may be directed over the persons during the loading and unloading operations without injury to the materials being treated as these currents of air would notcontact and change temperatures and chemical concentrations in the treating baths.

In accordance with my invention, I treat articles mounted on forms in liquid baths wherein the forms carrying the articles are submerged in the treating liquid in several horizontal layers, thus increasing the number of articles treated per unit of bath surface exposed. Further, in accordance with my invention I construct a device adapted tocontain rows or layers of forms, both vertical and horizontal, adapted to be submerged 50 in baths of substantial depth.

employed in the treatment of women's hosiery, men's half hose, gloves, sweaters or other shaped articles made from textile materials or similar materials. The textile material or similar material may be woven, knitted, netted, knotted or otherwiseformed from silk, cotton, regenerated cellulose, wool or artificial textile materials containing organic derivatives of cellulose, or mixtures and combinations of these. This invention is particularly applicable to the treatment of womens hosiery made of silk or sized synthetic yarn in that these materials require fairly long treatments in heated baths containing soap or other reagents to remove the natural gums or sizings applied to same. Thus, this invention is of particular importancein the de-gumming of silk hosiery or in the boiling off of sizing from hosiery made of organic derivatives of cellulose which have been treated for knitting purposes with a resin or other size. Textile materials containing organic derivatives of cellulose may include any of the organic derivatives of cellulose, for example,the organic acid esters of cellulose and cellulose ethers. Examples of organic acid esters of cellulose, are cellulose acetate, cellulose formate, cellulose propionate and cellulose butyrate, while examples of cellulose ethers are methyl cellulose, ethyl cellulose and benzyl cellulose.

The liquid baths in which the articles are to be treated may be any of the customary baths employed in the finishing of textile materials and may include aqueous or organic baths containing de-gumming agents, size removingagents, scouring soaps, shrinking agents, stitch setting agents, dyes, delustering agents, relustering agents, softening or stiffening agents. These baths may be operated at normal temperatures, reduced temperatures or elevated temperatures. For instance, in the finishing of women's hosiery made of sized yarns containing organic derivatives of cellulose, it is customary to boil the same while on the forms, in aqueous baths containing two to twenty grams of soap per litre for the purpose of removing the size, oils, yarn lubricants, dirt and other materials from the yarns and filaments. Another example of the type of bath that may be employed is in the de-gummi of silk where women's hosiery containing silk in the gum is placed in baths containing enzymes, which baths are maintainedat a uniform temperature to develop the activity of the enzymes in digesting the gum from the silk.

The method of this invention in general may be described as the treating of textile articles on forms in liquid baths in such a manner that the liquid employed is confined in as compact a space as is practical and a submerging of the articles on forms in this liquid in such a manner. that there may be a plurality of such forms one above the other in the bath. The method also embraces the confining of the liquid in a body such that the surface area thereof is as small 9.8%15 practicable and the articles are submerged in large numbers at one time.

For the purpose of more fully describing the invention, the same will be described with particular reference to the drawings. In the drawings there is shown a device constructed in accordance with this invention. One general plan is shown in Figs. 1 and 2 where l is a suitable tank adapted to contain a liquid. This tank may be provided with heating elements, for example, steam pipes, electric resistance or conductance coils, open flames or other heating elements, or with cooling means such as coils for the circulation of brine or the like. The tanks may, however, be equipped with both heating and cooling elements to be used alternately or for different types of processes. Although not shown, suitable drains and filling means may be provided. A suitable hoisting mechanism or crane 2, preferably capable of swinging horizonsuitably braced on five sides by cross straps 6.

Along the lower edge of the unbraced side may be a rod 1 suitably fastened in a bracket or upright member of the frame 5. Near the upper edge, on the same side as the rod 1, there may be downwardly slanting notches 8 formed either in the frame 5, an extension of the cross straps 6 or brackets secured thereto. At the upper corners of the frame 5 may also be placed ears 9 adapted'to retain by means of eyes suitable tie chains, or hanging rods II, that in turn are attached to a grab ring l2 for receiving the hook of the crane or other lifting device. The ears 9 may be formed from an extension of the cross straps 6 or brackets attached thereto.

Threaded on a rod 1 may be collars l3 and hubs M. The hubs and collars may alternate or may be employed in any order of sequence for the purpose of spacing the hubs or limiting the axial movement thereof when relatively few hubs are used. Formed integral with or attached to each hub I4 is a relatively long flat arm I5. The arms l5 may be made of a fiat strip of iron or they may be formed rigidly by employing a suitable length of an angle iron. In the device shown the arms are preferably of a length to reach from the rod I to above the bottom of the notch 8 so that they may be held in a vertical position by dropping a fastening rod l6 into the notch 8 behind them.

The arms I5 may have mounted thereon, at spaced intervals along the lower portion thereof, stud shafts l1. Stud shafts II may be in the form of bolts as shown in the drawings or they may be cylindrical protuberances formed integral with or welded to the arms. On each of the stud shafts I! may be mounted a base member l8 adapted to form the base and support for hosiery forms I9 or forms for other similar articles. Each base member It may be formed with an extending ear member 2 I. The ear member 2| may project outwardly at a side and near one end of the base members l8. All extending ears 2|, of the base members on one arm, may be connected together with a connecting rod 22. The connecting rod 22 may have attached thereto hand pieces 23. By means of the hand pieces 23 and the connecting rod 22 all the base members 18 along one arm may be rotated simultaneously from a direction parallel to the arm to a direction at substantially a, 90 angle to the length thereof. This rotation of the base members permits compact loading of the frame yet when taking ofi or putting on articles on the frames it provides for ample space for the operator's hands.

For the purpose of making the drawings clear the boil-off shields normally present on the forms have been omitted from the drawings. Any suitable type of boil-off shield may be employed. However, I prefer to use the one shown in-my copending application S. No. 11,519 filed March 3, 1935. These shields may be pivoted to the base members l8 by suitable projecting pins as fully disclosed in the above co-pending application. According to the users taste, these shields may be caused to be tipped in unison away from the hosiery form by connecting all the shields along one arm to a single connecting rod which may be pulled, downwardly or pushed up to swing all shields in unison.

In operation, a rack 4 is deposited upon table or bench 3 which preferably consists of two parallel uprights and the rod I5 is removed from the rack. One arm from the rack is swung to a horizontal position and by means of the hand pieces 23 the forms are rotated to substantially a 90 angle to the length of the arm. The forms while in this position are loaded with hosiery, say, from one to eight or more pieces to each form. Then, by means of the hand pieces 23 the forms are rotated back to a position substantiallyparallel to the arm and the arm swung to a vertical .position.

In like manner each arm may be loaded, after which the rod l6. may be inserted back of the vertically positioned 'arms to lock the same in that position.

The tank I is filled with a suitable liquid and adjusted to the proper temperature. The rack 4 is then hoisted by the crane from the table 3 and moved to a position over the tank. The rack is then lowered into the tank while the hoist picks up the rack previously placed in the tank from the tank containing the treated articles and moves it to the table Where the rack is stripped of the articles contained therein and the same is again loaded in the manner described above.

In the boiling off of the sizing from hosiery formed of organic derivatives of cellulose approximately fifteen minutes are required to load the frame shown in the drawings, after which it is placed in the boiling off vat by means of an electric crane. The second frame is loaded and placed in the boiloff. At the end of forty minutes from the start the first frame has been sufiiciently treated and is ready to be removed. As soon as this frame is removed the third frame which has been loaded is lowered into the vat andthe one just removed is unloaded and reloaded. This unloading and reloading requires a period of approximately twenty minutes, at the end of which time the second frame is ready to be removed and the reloaded frame placed in the tank in its stead.

The above description and drawings are given merely by way of illustration and many modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit of my invention.

Having described my invention, what I desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. Apparatus for the treatment of textile articles with a liquid medium, comprising a boxlike frame, a plurality of arms pivotally connected to said frame, and forms, upon which the textile articles are adapted to be positioned for treatment, supported on said arms.

2. Apparatus for the treatment of textile articles with a liquid medium, comprising a boxlike frame, a plurality of arms pivotally connected to said frame, and forms, upon which the textile articles are adapted to be' positioned for treatment, supported on said arms, said forms being horizontally arranged when the apparatus is in operative position for the treatment with the liquid medium.

3. Apparatus for the treatment of textile articles with a liquid medium, comprising a boxlike frame, one side of said frame comprising a plurality of hinged arms, and forms, upon which the textile articles are adapted to be positioned for treatment, mounted on said arms in spaced, non-touching relation.

4. Apparatus for the treatment of textile articles with a liquid medium, comprising a' boxlike frame, one side of said frame comprising a plurality of hinged arms, and forms, upon which the textile articles are adapted to be positioned for treatment, mounted on said arms in spaced, non-touching relation, said forms being horizontally arranged when the apparatus is in operative position for the treatment with the liquid medium.

5. Apparatus for the treatment of textile articles with a liquid medium comprising a box-like frame, a plurality of' arms pivotally connected to said frame, forms, upon which the textile articles are adapted to be positioned for treatment,

supported on said arms and means'for rotating said forms relative to said arms.

6. Apparatus for the treatment of textile articles with a liquid medium comprising a box 7. Apparatus for the treatment of textile articles with a liquid medium, comprising a boxlike frame, a plurality of arms pivotally connected to said frame, base members mounted on said arms, forms, upon which the textile articles are adapted'to be positioned for treatment, supported by said base members and means for rotating' said base members, whereby the forms are rotated relative to said arms.

8. Apparatus for the treatment of textile articles with a liquid medium, comprising a boxlike frame, a plurality of arms pivotally connected to said frame, base members mounted on said arms, forms, upon which the textile articles are adapted to be positioned for treatment, supported by said base members and means on each of said arms for simultaneously rotating the base members mounted thereon whereby the forms are simultaneously rotated relative to the arm upon which they are supported.

BRADFORD c. GIBBS. 

